Re: music CD project
Thank you for the responses. Maybe I need to clarify a bit. If I wasn't clear before, my intention is to hire someone else to do the actual printing and assembly. I am speaking of a printer as a person who works in a mass printing shop rather than a machine which is connected to my computer. Here is my response to Christian (thank you) and I also have a few more questions further below. Christian Grothoff wrote: > Sounds *very* familiar. I've been involved in a project for a > pair of CDs and most of the cover-art was made with the gimp... Cool! > Well, I ended up printing the covers on an Tektronik Phaser 390 > or something like that. The main problem was: though all > the "good" printers can read postscript and though gimp can > produce postscript, the colors the printer will use will look > quite different from what you've seen on your screen. The first > step to take is to get a PPD-File *for your printer*. The > producer should offer one. Tell gimp to use it (under Preferences > in the print-dialog). The resulting ps-file should be pretty > good already. I am not quite sure I understand here. I am trying to output my work as a Postscript file ... (OK, that makes sense) ... in order to print a nice copy from my *own* printer so that I can ... (pick one) ... a) See that the colors look good in print before I send out my work digitally. b) Print all of the covers myself from my own printer. c) Make a camera-ready copy to send to the printers. d) None of the above. (Please disregard if this is a result of the confusion over the word "printer" that I mentioned above.) I printed it once at a Kinko's (a popular US copy center franchise) on a color printer there, but I don't think I can trust it as a gage for how it would really look from a high-quality printer. About ppd files, I found a few ppd files on my system associated with gnuStep, but I have never dealt with them before. Ppd files are something I will have to learn about. AND I can't find the print-dialog. I go to File >> Preferences and see tabs which read Display, Interface, Environment, and Directories, but none of them seem to have printer setting information in them. (Is my gimp installation incomplete?) I don't mean to be a pain, I just don't understand. > The next step to improve the quality would probably be to calibrate > your monitor, read the GUM for details about that. Good point!! My copy from Kinko's was a little dark. I wonder if my monitor might have had something to do with it. > Oh, please post a summary on the replies & what worked best in your > case on gimp-user --- I think there're quite a few people looking > for tips in this area --- including me :-) I sure will. ... Reading some of brochures online regarding printing, I was thinking that either I might have to put it in a special format (will PhotoShop's psd format work for me?), or I would have to do something like 4-color separation onto film (who would do that for me?). Actually, at one time I had a filter in Gimp which could do color separation, but then after I upgraded gimp one time, I lost it somehow. I think it might have been part of some unstable add-ons. It would be nice if I could get it back. Anyone else seen it? (Maybe this would be useful for me. ?? ) I have never sent off anything to be mass printed before and of course printers know nothing about gimp. (When they ask, "Is your work on Windows or Mac?" My answer, "Well, actually, Linux. Have you ever heard of Gimp?" ... Doesn't get much of a response.) I hope that I am not off in a completely wrong direction. I really want to get this right and when I do (I hope with all of your help) it sounds like we might all benefit from my experiences here. Jon __ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/
Re: music CD project
Thank you for the responses. Maybe I need to clarify a bit. If I wasn't clear before, my intention is to hire someone else to do the actual printing and assembly. I am speaking of a printer as a person who works in a mass printing shop rather than a machine which is connected to my computer. Here is my response to Christian (thank you) and I also have a few more questions further below. Christian Grothoff wrote: > Sounds *very* familiar. I've been involved in a project for a > pair of CDs and most of the cover-art was made with the gimp... Cool! > Well, I ended up printing the covers on an Tektronik Phaser 390 > or something like that. The main problem was: though all > the "good" printers can read postscript and though gimp can > produce postscript, the colors the printer will use will look > quite different from what you've seen on your screen. The first > step to take is to get a PPD-File *for your printer*. The > producer should offer one. Tell gimp to use it (under Preferences > in the print-dialog). The resulting ps-file should be pretty > good already. I am not quite sure I understand here. I am trying to output my work as a Postscript file ... (OK, that makes sense) ... in order to print a nice copy from my *own* printer so that I can ... (pick one) ... a) See that the colors look good in print before I send out my work digitally. b) Print all of the covers myself from my own printer. c) Make a camera-ready copy to send to the printers. d) None of the above. (Please disregard if this is a result of the confusion over the word "printer" that I mentioned above.) I printed it once at a Kinko's (a popular US copy center franchise) on a color printer there, but I don't think I can trust it as a gage for how it would really look from a high-quality printer. About ppd files, I found a few ppd files on my system associated with gnuStep, but I have never dealt with them before. Ppd files are something I will have to learn about. AND I can't find the print-dialog. I go to File >> Preferences and see tabs which read Display, Interface, Environment, and Directories, but none of them seem to have printer setting information in them. (Is my gimp installation incomplete?) I don't mean to be a pain, I just don't understand. > The next step to improve the quality would probably be to calibrate > your monitor, read the GUM for details about that. Good point!! My copy from Kinko's was a little dark. I wonder if my monitor might have had something to do with it. > Oh, please post a summary on the replies & what worked best in your > case on gimp-user --- I think there're quite a few people looking > for tips in this area --- including me :-) I sure will. ... Reading some of brochures online regarding printing, I was thinking that either I might have to put it in a special format (will PhotoShop's psd format work for me?), or I would have to do something like 4-color separation onto film (who would do that for me?). Actually, at one time I had a filter in Gimp which could do color separation, but then after I upgraded gimp one time, I lost it somehow. I think it might have been part of some unstable add-ons. It would be nice if I could get it back. Anyone else seen it? (Maybe this would be useful for me. ?? ) I have never sent off anything to be mass printed before and of course printers know nothing about gimp. (When they ask, "Is your work on Windows or Mac?" My answer, "Well, actually, Linux. Have you ever heard of Gimp?" ... Doesn't get much of a response.) I hope that I am not off in a completely wrong direction. I really want to get this right and when I do (I hope with all of your help) it sounds like we might all benefit from my experiences here. Jon __ Do You Yahoo!? Get Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/
